K. W. Jeter

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K. W. Jeter
KWJeter-SanFrancisco-2011.jpg
K. W. Jeter in San Francisco (2011)
Born
Kevin Wayne Jeter

(1950-03-26) March 26, 1950 (age 73)
Alma mater California State University, Fullerton (BA)
OccupationAuthor
Years active1975–present

Kevin Wayne Jeter (born March 26, 1950) [1] is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He has written novels set in the Star Trek and Star Wars universes, and has written three sequels to Blade Runner . Jeter coined the term "steampunks". [2]

Contents

Biography

He went to Buena Park High School. Jeter attended college at California State University, Fullerton where he became friends with James P. Blaylock and Tim Powers, and through them, Philip K. Dick.[ citation needed ] Jeter was actually the inspiration for "Kevin" in Dick's semi-autobiographical novel, Valis. [3] Many of Jeter's books focus on the subjective nature of reality in a way reminiscent of Dick's.

Philip K. Dick enthusiastically recommended Jeter's early cyberpunk novel, Dr. Adder . Due to its violent and sexually provocative content, it took Jeter around ten years to find a publisher for it. Jeter would also coin the term steampunk, in reference to cyberpunk [4] in a letter to Locus in April 1987, in order to describe the steam-technology, alternate-history works that he published along with his friends, Blaylock and Powers. Jeter's steampunk novels are Morlock Night , Infernal Devices , and its sequels Fiendish Schemes (2013) and Grim Expectations (2017).

As well as his own original novels, K. W. Jeter has written three authorized novel sequels to the critically acclaimed 1982 motion picture Blade Runner , which was adapted from Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? . [5]

Bibliography

Original novels

Dr. Adder trilogy

George Dower trilogy

  1. Infernal Devices (1987)
  2. Fiendish Schemes (2013)
  3. Grim Expectations (2017) [7]

Novellas

Star Wars books

Blade Runner sequels

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels

Comic book works

The Kim Oh Thrillers (as Kim Oh)

Related Research Articles

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<i>Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night</i> 1996 science fiction novel by K. W. Jeter

Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night is a science fiction novel by an American writer K. W. Jeter, first published in 1996. It is a continuation of Jeter's novel Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, which was itself a sequel to both the film Blade Runner and the novel upon which the film was based, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

<i>Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human</i> 1995 science fiction novel by K. W. Jeter

Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (1995) is a science fiction novel by American writer K. W. Jeter. It is a continuation of both the film Blade Runner and the novel upon which the film was based, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyberpunk</span> Postmodern science fiction genre in a futuristic dystopian setting

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James Paul Blaylock is an American fantasy author. He is noted for a distinctive, humorous style, as well as being one of the pioneers of the steampunk genre of science fiction. Blaylock has cited Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens as his inspirations.

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Philip Kindred Dick, often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness.

<i>Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?</i> 1968 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steampunk</span> Science fiction genre inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery

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Timothy Thomas Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. His first major novel was The Drawing of the Dark (1979), but the novel that earned him wide praise was The Anubis Gates (1983), which won the Philip K. Dick Award, and has since been published in many other languages. His other written work include Dinner at Deviant's Palace (1985), Last Call (1992), Expiration Date (1996), Earthquake Weather (1997), Declare (2000), and Three Days to Never (2006). Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare. His 1987 novel On Stranger Tides served as inspiration for the Monkey Island franchise of video games and was optioned for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film.

Since the advent of the cyberpunk genre, a number of cyberpunk derivatives have become recognized in their own right as distinct subgenres in speculative fiction, especially in science fiction. Rather than necessarily sharing the digitally and mechanically focused setting of cyberpunk, these derivatives can display other futuristic, or even retrofuturistic, qualities that are drawn from or analogous to cyberpunk: a world built on one particular technology that is extrapolated to a highly sophisticated level, a gritty transreal urban style, or a particular approach to social themes.

Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott.

<i>Infernal Devices</i> (Jeter novel)

Infernal Devices is a steampunk novel by K. W. Jeter, published in 1987. The novel was republished in 2011 by Angry Robot Books with a new introduction by the author, cover art by John Coulthart, and an afterword by Jeff VanderMeer.

<i>Dr. Adder</i> 1984 science fiction novel by K. W. Jeter

Dr. Adder is a dark science fiction novel by American writer K. W. Jeter, set in a future where the United States has largely broken down into reluctantly cooperating enclaves run by a wide variety of strongmen and warlords, with a veneer of government control that seems largely interested in controlling technology. Dr. Adder is an artist-surgeon, who modifies sexual organs of his patients to satisfy the weirdest of perversion; he is clearly depicted as a partly criminal, partly counter-cultural figure in a future Los Angeles. The novel anticipates various cyberpunk ideas that would be established by the Sprawl trilogy written by William Gibson, as well as other works of that science fiction genre.

<i>Morlock Night</i> 1979 science fiction novel by K. W. Jeter

Morlock Night is a science fiction novel by American writer K. W. Jeter. It was published in 1979. In a letter to Locus Magazine in April 1987, Jeter coined the word "steampunk" to describe it and other novels by James Blaylock and Tim Powers.

Japanese cyberpunk refers to cyberpunk fiction produced in Japan. There are two distinct subgenres of Japanese cyberpunk: live-action Japanese cyberpunk films, and cyberpunk manga and anime works.

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Postmodern Metanarratives: Blade Runner and Literature in the Age of Image is a non-fiction book by Décio Torres Cruz published in 2014 by Palgrave Macmillan.

References

  1. "Summary Bibliography: K. W. Jeter". www.isfdb.org.
  2. Beschizza, Rob (March 1, 2011). "The Birth of Steampunk". Boing Boing. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
  3. Sutin, Lawrence (1989). Divine Invasions. New York City: Carol Publishing Group. p. 258. ISBN   0-8065-1228-8.
  4. "The Birth of Steampunk". BoingBoing. March 2011.
  5. "K.W. Jeter: Rockin' in the Steampunk World". Locus Online Perspectives. July 20, 2014.
  6. "Authors : Jeter, K W". Science Fiction Encyclopedia.
  7. "Revealing New Covers for K.W. Jeter's George Dower Trilogy". Tor.com. December 19, 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2017.